Darkness Falls
by Tom Redfield
Summary: The second story in The Time War Adventures. The Doctor takes Keira on her first trip to Earth but things take a sour turn when they end up in a town where people are going missing and a legend has everyone gripped in fear. Could an old enemy be hiding in plain sight?
1. Prologue

Nestled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Greyriver Forest always had an underground reputation for the gruesome and macabre. Small urban legends made their way around the local people as they did for pretty much every gloomy and sinister nook or cranny around the world. Ghosts... Demons... The Chupacabra... Deranged killers... Different tales for different places but there was always something.

That was what brought Cassidy to the woods today. Her eager and energetic attitude went completely against the grub and sweat both on her face and within her vivid red hair. Behind her a tired band of followers dragged themselves along, frustrated at their leader's inability to pick a decent spot. Most agitated was a tall, brown haired boy struggling with the equipment in the back.

"Remind me again, why I had to be the pack mule?" he spoke up.

"Because you picked the short straw!" Cassidy responded with an almost malicious smirk.

"There are four of us! Why couldn't we just share the load?"

"Because me. Director. They. Stars. You. Chore Boy. Simple. Got that Johnny-boy?"

Johnny rolled his eyes and restrained his response to nothing more than a mere quiet grumble. The group fell silent once more as they pushed on in the quest for a perfect filming spot.

"Oh my god. Guys! Over there!" Cassidy screeched, pointing out through a clearing and toward a cave, "That's the perfect place to film!"

An deeply unsettling feeling washed over the other three members of the group. Something was off about the place but fears aside, they knew there was no arguing. They were well past the point of bothering anyway. The quartet pushed on, entering the darkness.

Things then just got stranger.

Within the cave, a humming sound became audible. A sound that was seemingly inaudible to Cassidy as she showed no signs of losing her energy and turned to her subordinates.

"Right, let's get ready to film!"

That was where things truly went south as behind the girl, an impossibly white light creaked through the walls and filled the room. Shadows, a disturbing cross between human and not human, started to appear and surround.

The four students shrieked as those behind the shadows made themselves clear before their very eyes. Down they fell, one by one, as the hulking creatures carried them off away back into their home in the light. As Johnny was dragged, he heard something. A voice. It drifted in and drifted out as the boy faded away to unconsciousness.

"take him away..."

It sounded so familiar.


	2. A Town Called Misery

"Stupid machine!" The Doctor cursed as he left the TARDIS.

"This is Earth, yeah?" Keira enquired, her demeanour much more positive.

"Hm? Oh, yes. But we're off in terms of date and on the wrong side of the world." The Doctor turned to the blue box again "I said twenty TWO fourteen! Two!"

Keira walked away. "I don't care where or when we are. We're on Earth. That's all I wanted. And I'm not up to another magical mystery tour trying to get back to here again! "

As she wandered through the forest, an almost whimsical smile grew upon Keira's face as she took in the sights, smells and sounds of being on Earth, humanity's origin. She revelled in the air hitting her face, the chirping of the birds in the trees, the smells of pure, organic nature. She didn't have an eye on where she was headed. Her face was looking to the bright blue skies, a sight that she had never seen before in a lifetime upon a dank, grotty space station tucked in the corner of an empire that didn't give a damn about it.

The Doctor was so caught up in berating the blue box that it took him a while to realise that Keira had walked away towards what looked like a small town through the trees. As he caught up with the brunette and noted her appreciation of the world around her, he was quick to forget the wrong date.

"So where are we anyway?" Keira enquired, as she broke out of her state and saw the man behind her in a gentle jog to catch up.

"Somewhere in the Northwestern United States. Idaho, I think."

"Idaho... gotcha..." Keira took in the words without truly acknowledging what they meant.

It didn't take long for The Doctor and Keira to detect a hint of melancholy in the air as they entered the town. The roads and people were quiet with barely a smile to be seen. It was infectious to the point of quickly crushing Keira's sense of awe and whimsy at reaching earth at last. Usual attempts to talk to people were quashed before they even begun by a sense of awkwardness. Signs around the main street belonging to various establishments told The Doctor the name of the town: Greyriver Falls.

A turn to main street unveiled the reason behind the glum. Before them lay a large memorial littered with the images of people, most no older than twenty-one. In front of the memorial stood a lone, petite girl.

"Hello?" The Doctor spoke, his tone quiet and sympathetic.

"If you're some tourists here for a gruesome story, fuck off. I'm here to mourn my brother." the girl quickly responded, her sapphire eyes in a scowl.

"I'm sorry for intruding but I assure you that we're not. We've found ourself... in a different neck of the woods compared to that where we were expecting to go and just stumbled into town. I'm sorry to hear of your loss." The Doctor said.

"Hmm... Well, if you're lost, just turn around and go back home. This ain't a place you want to end up or you'll end up like them." The girl motioned her head back towards the wall behind her.

"Where's your brother?" Keira piped in to ask.

The girl pointed to a photo on the wall, featuring herself with a blonde man, both slightly taller and older looking. The photo was annotated 'Nate and Ally Parker - 23/11/2013'.

"You looked happy." Keira awkwardly continued, not really sure what to say.

"We were. Then he came here. Freak murder central. Home of the Shadowstalkers or whatever. Oooh, real scary. Gotta put a spooky slant on this shit to bring in the Blair Witch freaks. People die and all others want is some story to follow."

"Shadowstalkers?" The Doctor's curiosity had been piqued.

"Yeah. The urban legend that surrounds all this. Not quite human creatures that are utterly invisible and inaudible in the shadows. Bullshit made up by a bunch of pussies unable to process there's a human killer out there, if you ask me." Ally said.

"Do you know where these creatures are?" The Doctor continued.

"Hiding out there in the forest somewhere. Beats me. Can you leave me alone now? I came here to mourn, not give out the local tour."

The Doctor nodded and thanked Ally for her time as the pair turned back around and walked away, leaving the girl to mourn her brother.

"Well... She certainly had a way with words..." Keira quietly remarked.

"Hmm...Indeed." The Doctor's voice was more disparaging, "But this all has me quite intrigued. Something is off about this, Keira and I intend to get to the bottom of this."

"So... where are we headed?"

"To the forest. It's time to go hunting..."

Trekking through the woods, the pair were in pursuit of the so-called 'shadowstalkers'. With no-one in town willing to help, the pair had no clue as to a place or direction to head in. The search became endless as things reached an obvious conclusion: fruitless. Hours passed and Keira was growing impatient. From that impatience came an idea for a new perspective to pursue.

"Let's head for higher ground. Perhaps we could see something from higher up."

The Doctor agreed and the pair headed up. Looking over the town and forest below, yet again nothing stood out, leading Keira to one last ditch idea. Planting her feet on the trunk of the closest tree, she started to climb. A few metres up, she balanced herself upon a thick branch for an even better look.

It turned out she didn't need to look far.

Just a few metres away, a deer was moving along with a sense of paranoia. It could feel something was on the prowl but neither it nor Keira could see or hear anything. It walked along, with trepidation. Slowly, it got faster as it felt something get closer... and closer... and closer...

A shriek of agony pierced through the silence like a sword as a blur moved in for the kill.

Keira jumped, causing her to lose her balance and come tumbling down to earth with a crash.


	3. The Caves of Greyriver

"Ugh..."

When Keira came to, she found herself on a bed in a cramped white room. She looked around, gathering from the medical instruments dotted around the room and posters on the wall that she was in some kind of medical area. A clack of high heels drifted into her hearing as a woman entered the room, her hair pulled back in a neat brown ponytail and her body dressed in a white labcoat and green jumper.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Miss Nystrom." she said. Where the words tried to be friendly, the tone made them come across as cold.

Keira instantly retracted, defensive. She didn't know who this woman was, where she was, or what had happened to her.

"Who are you?" Keira asked, apprehension in her voice.

"I'm Dr. Nivans, general caretaker of any bumps, falls or illnesses in this little town of ours. But everyone in town calls me Dr. Rachel, but in all honesty, I'd rather that you didn't. Your Doctor friend brought you in a couple of hours back. Said you came crashing down from a tree." Keira's face made it clear that she was only just remembering the incident in the trees. "No need to panic though. No major damage. No concussion. Just a little blood. Just count your blessing and stop acting like a five year old boy for a day or so and you should be A-OK, alright?"

Keira jumped up off the bed, quick and eager to get out.

"So I can go, right?"

"Go right ahead. Your friend said he'd be at the diner, just a couple of blocks down from here."

"Thanks, Doc."

As Keira stepped through the threshold and out into the fresh air, a strange feeling came over her. She felt slightly disorientated, almost as if her brain was deceiving her in some strange way. She was quick to shrug it off however, placing the source on the fact that she had just fallen head-first out of a tree. She walked along, trying to find this diner that Dr. Nivans had said that the Doctor was located in. It didn't take long as she quickly saw the eccentric man sitting in the window of a small brown building almost immediately. His face turned into a smile as he saw his companion walking down the street.

"That bandage looks nasty." was the first thing the Doctor said as Keira sat down on the opposite side of the table.

"I should be fine. The town doctor was quick to let me off." Keira responded as she took off the bandage with a smirk. "Besides, it was nothing that a few nanogenes couldn't fix up." she then proceeded to look down at the menu. The smell of all the various fatty, sugar-covered foods in the room was making her hunger more and more apparent.

"Another aspect of your augmentations, I presume? Those things don't make you invincible, Keira. They don't make up for sheer reckless stupidity!"

"But at least I got somewhere with this and saw something, Doctor! Before I fell, I saw something. Some kind of predator pouncing upon it's prey."

"What was it like? Could you make out anything?" The Doctor asked.

"Well... I don't know exactly. It was a blur. It just... came out from the shadows. And it was so strange... I couldn't see any sign of this creature before that. It seemed completely invisible. Like it wasn't there at all. I /should/ have seen it, Doctor but somehow, I didn't."

"Was this creature small? Roughly the size of a cat?" The Doctor asked, thinking he was onto what these 'shadowstalkers' were.

"No. Well... I'm not sure. It was a blur but it seemed closer to a human in size and stature.." Keira said.

"Interesting..." The Doctor quietly noted to himself. "I was thinking of a certain kind of alien species but besides the obvious question of how they came to Earth, they would never, ever attack a creature close to the size of a human being..."

"Well, it's prey was certainly big! It was four-legged with these big impressive stalks coming out of it's head. Another alien species?"

A man from another booth made his eavesdropping on the conversation with an incredulous remark. "Never seen no deer before?"

The Doctor stepped in, a slight amount of laughter in his voice. "Excuse my friend... she isn't from around here." He then turned back to Keira, his tone more hushed. "We need to go now."

Keira sighed. "But Doctor, I'm getting hungry. I haven't eaten since we got here!"

"I've been talking and found out about this cave. Apparently, it's where these creatures reside and roughly where all the disappearances happen. I want to have a look before it hits nightfall. Grab something to go. We have to move."

The Doctor chucked Keira a small pouch filled with coins. The brunette thanked the Doctor as she headed to the counter while he headed for the exit of the building.

"It should be right over through this clearing."

Keira nibbled down on the last of the snacks she picked up from the diner as she followed the Doctor's guidance through the forest. The constant trekking through the forest was starting to pain the brunette's feet, despite the fact she knew to wear the most comfortable boots the TARDIS wardrobe could offer.

"Best hiking boots in the universe, my ass." She grumpily muttered to herself.

"The cave is over there. Not much further to go!" The Doctor shouted from a fair distance in front. He was pointing in the direction of a cliff. The trees obscured vision of the cave from Keira's angle but she decided to turn in that direction accordingly. The pair caught up at the front of the cave as Keira stopped. There was that feeling again. That feeling of disorientation that she had felt back in town, outside of Dr. Nivans' clinic. It was there once more. Once again, she placed it on the fall and shrugged it off. She didn't feel a need to concern the Doctor.

The pair walked into the cave. The Doctor was quick to notice the humming. He knew the sound but he couldn't quite place a finger on what it was. Whatever this was, it felt slightly distorted and slightly off but he knew. Deep down, he knew what this sound was and it frustrated the man that he couldn't place a finger on what it exactly was.

"This isn't an animal lair." Keira said, interrupting the Doctor's bout of internal frustation, "It's too clean."

"Hm?" The Doctor looked around the cave. "Yes, you're quite right. No blood, no signs of dwelling, no... nothing..."

"Perhaps this was a dead end?" Keira suggested.

"No. Not quite. Listen."

Keira was onto the humming now but it was unfamiliar to her. "The humming. So? I presumed that some natural process or something."

"Hmm... not quite. There's something about it, Keira. Something... familiar... and not in a good way. Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Hey. Hey. Hey! You're not supposed to be up here!"

The voice belonged to a young man, dressed in police attire. His tone was curious, an attempt to be stern that was smothered by a general tone of friendliness.

"I'm sorry, officer. We're visiting, you see? And we sort of got lost. Do you know the way back to town?" The Doctor cheerily said.

His expression turned fully friendly as he failed to recognise the pair as locals, adding to his belief to the half-lie.

"Ah, I'm sorry. It's a tad dangerous to be around here. People are going missing and all! Plus that cave there just gives me the heebie-jeebies! Just head in that direction and you should be in Greyriver Falls in no time!" The officer responded.

"Thank you!" The Doctor responded as he lead the way back.

As she walked back through the forest, Keira was fixated on the officers comment about the cave. Was his feeling the same one that she had felt? It was time to fess up.

"Doctor..."

"Yes?"

"I've been getting these odd feelings. One back in the cave and one back in town. It's like... It's hard explain but... I feel that I'm not in the place that I am, if you catch my drift."

"Like you've travelled further than you actually have?"

"I guess you could put it like that, yeah..."

The humming... Keira's feelings of disorientation... The unusuakly large creatures stalking the forests... The Doctor was starting to come to a conclusion. One, that if true, he needed to act upon fast.

"Keira! Where in town did you feel this feeling?" The Doctor turned to ask, a great amount of urgency in his voice.

"When I stepped out of the town clinic. Why?" Keira confusedly responded.

"No time to explain. We need to move!"

The Doctor broke into a sprint. Keira did her best to follow, cringing with how every speedy step inflicted more and more pain on her feet.

"I haven't been completely honest with you, Keira." The Doctor said.

The pair were searching around the clinic of Dr. Nivans. Keira had no idea what she was looking for.

"I'm not human. I'm a Time Lord." The man continued.

"A Time Lord? Kind of a posey title to give yourselves, don't ya think?" Keira seemed to have no idea what these Time Lords were, much to the Doctor's relief.

"Poesy is... a light way to describe them. Well, it used to be anyway. We come from the planet Gallifrey. Usually, I would be more forthcoming with that fact but my people... aren't exactly the nicest people in the Universe as it stands. We're fighting a war. One that has barely begun but has already consumed so much in fire and bloodshed. One that I have no interest in fighting. And I'm sorry, Keira. I'm not exactly showing you the universe at the greatest of times."

"Why are you telling me this now? Here?" she wondered.

"Because what I think we're up against here is another one of my people. A devious and cunning example of our race, prior to the outbreak and I fear what this war may have made from her..."

"And how do you know this?" Keira asked.

The Doctor found what he was looking for. He picked up a bright white ball, hidden amongst Dr. Nivans' clutter. In the Time Lord's hand, the sphere turned a bright orange as white light filled tall four eyes in the room. When the light died down, the pair found themselves in a vastly different room to the one when the light started up. This new room before them reminded Keira of the control room of The Doctor's TARDIS, only where the Doctor's room was warm, dark and majestic, this one was cold, white and practical. The only two features of the room were white roundels adorning the walls and central control panel, exactly like the one in the Doctor's TARDIS. Only once again, this one was more plain and clinical compared to the Doctor's grand, gothic version.

"This is why." The Doctor remarked.


	4. Journey to the Centre of Nightmares

"Another TARDIS?" Keira gasped.

"Indeed." The Doctor said, "Which means another Time Lord, another one of my people, is behind all of this and I think I know exactly which one."

"Who?" Keira was even more worried now.

"One of the worst. A despicable woman without a care about good or evil, simply bare chemistry and biology." The Doctor walked away towards the bowels of the ship, never bothering to give the name of this Time Lady.

Of course, Keira thought as she rolled her eyes and followed the Time Lord.

As the pair found themselves entering deeper and deeper into the ship, Keira started to feel uneasy. The hairs on the back of her neck started to stand on edge. It was like she was being watched.

"Doctor..."

The Doctor didn't respond. He was too focused. He was looking for something in the ship.

"DOCTOR!"

A low pitched snarl caught the attention of the pair as they turned around. Behind them stood two monstrous creatures. Their skins were almost black in hue, their height easily over seven feet tall. They stood upright, their bodies almost human-like in shape with the exception of their heads, which were more beast-like. Long, thin fangs extruded from their mouths. The creatures slowly approached The Doctor and Keira as the man and woman slowly backed away.

"Keira..." The Doctor said.

"Yes, Doctor?" she replied.

"RUN!"

Keira turned 180 degrees and broke into a sprint. Her mind was completely devoted to her flight instinct. She no longer noticed the pain in her feet, neither did she notice the fact that she had lost the Doctor after the first split they came across in the corridor. She ran and she ran and she ran.

Fatigue quickly began to set in but the creature didn't seem to let up. Keira had to rest. She turned to every door she came across, only to find most of them locked up. Desperation began to set in. She didn't want to die, especially at the hands of this creature.

One last door.

One last chance.

It panned out. She burst into the room and locked the door behind her. The shadow of the creature was visible through the grey translucent barrier as it bashed upon it. Each crash caused the brunette to jump back in fear. Eventually, the creature stopped and the shadow moved away.

Keira's heart still pounded within her chest. She was too scared to leave the room. Without the tension of her pursuer at the door however, she began to take notice of what was around her. The room was octagonal. Beds were positioned so that they jutted out from seven of the eight walls. Upon every one of those beds lay a person or what used to be a person. Keira felt sick to her stomach. Six of the seven people lay dead atop matresses stained red with blood. Their bodies were mutated horrifically. Their limbs were brutally twisted with skins of the whole spectrum of colours. Only one person seemed unaffected. A red-haired female, no older than 20. Her torso slowly rose and fell. She was alive.

"Hello...?" Keira said as she walked up to the girl with trepidation.

The Doctor also ran. He ran from an unrelenting pursuer and a formidable predator. He was blind to what was around him as he quickly made a bad choice. He was heading straight for a dead end. No doors. No turns. Nothing.

The creature slowed as The Doctor turned his back to the wall. There was now no need to keep chasing. The prey was captured. Now it was time for it to relish in the kill. It raised it's clawed arm and went in to slash...

"ENOUGH!"

A stern, female voice cut through the tension as the creature lowered it's arm and walked away. In the creature's place now stood Dr. Nivans, an annoyed look on her face.

"I was hoping you wouldn't figure things out, Doctor. In fact, I was hoping you wouldn't show up at all but I guess that was asking too much when I set up shop on your dear old beloved planet Earth..." she said, walking up to her fellow Time Lord with mockery in her voice.

"If it's any consolation, I do feel utterly _stupid_ that I didn't work this out earlier. This has your fingerprints all over it, Rani." The Doctor said.

The Rani smirked slightly. "I guess I'll take what I can get..."

Cassidy felt like shit.

Every part of her body tingled as she woke up. Her head throbbed with pain. Before her, a brunette looked down upon her. Her eyes were a most distinctive and luminous green.

"Who are... you?" Cassidy asked. If she had more energy, she would probably be scared. Instead, she merely spluttered out a cough.

"Hey. Hey. Hey!" the woman jumped to her side, "My name's Keira. I'm here to help."

Keira wasn't entirely sure about her statement. She didn't know if she could help this girl. She seemed to be on the brink of death and there was still the matter of creatures roaming around the ship. However, she still felt compelled to comfort. It was the least she could do.

"Cassidy." the redhead spluttered.

"Well. Hello Cassidy." Keira smiled faintly as she said those words. She then turned around to scan the room with her eyes. They glowed as the computer in her brain analyzed what the woman saw and compared to vast databases of medical information in it's memory. Keira wanted to see if there was anyway she could help, if there was anything to ease her new friend's pain.

"Did you see a guy?" Cassidy said. "Brown hair... tall... crappy attitude..."

Keira continued to peruse around the room. "Uh... I haven't. No..." Keira wasn't lying but she wasn't entirely sure that what she said was the case either. If the other members of the room were mutated remnants of experiments, she had no idea what they could have looked like before.

"Oh..." A twitch of disappointment was apparent in Cassidy's voice, despite how weak it was. "Hey. Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot." Keira said.

"Have you ever regretted something? Not saying something to someone or leaving something too long?" The weakened girl asked.

Keira was quick to realise the problem that inspired Cassidy's question. "Of course. We all have somewhere along the line, haven't we? For me, it was... a long time ago." Keira let out a small chuckle to herself at that last sentence. 'A long time ago' was actually 4 millennia into the the future. Just one of the many quirks of being a time traveller. "There was this girl. This amazing, beautiful girl. She was into me and I should have been into her. Well... I pretty much was but I was obsessed with something else. I was so consumed with a dream that I rejected anything that could have held me back and well... she could have held me back."

"Not into boys then?" Cassidy asked.

"Nope. Why would you assume that?" Keira asked with confusion as she came to the end of her search. Nothing leapt out to her as helpful so they just had to make do. The woman then walked out to the door. She peered out slowly, apprehensively. She was on the lookout for those creatures.

However, she was looking for the wrong danger.

Behind her, Cassidy let out sharp, piercing screams as her body contorted, twisted and extended. Her skin hardened and discoloured to a jet black. Her pupils grew to the point of consuming her eyes. Blood dripped onto the bed as long, grey claws burst out of the tips of her fingers. Her bright, distinctive hair remained as the only remnant of the woman that once was.

The new creature got out of the bed and looked to Keira, an inhuman voice leaving its snarling lips.

"Hungry... So hungry..."


	5. Asylum of the Damaged

"What are you up to now, Rani?" The Doctor's voice had a tinge of sardonic boredom as he followed the Rani through the long, winding corridors of her TARDIS.

"I'm providing insurance for the human race. They're weak and feeble. Bugs to be crushed under the higher races fighting this stupid, pathetic war." The woman responded.

"The Rani? Looking out for the human race? Poppycock! You're taking away everything they are! Destroying the human race and hollowing them to conform to your vicious, sadistic purposes! I saw how those creatures reacted. This is merely insurance for yourself!" The Doctor sped up and got closer to the deceptively young looking and brown-haired Time Lady in front of him, his look of anger and disgust twisting into a smirk. "The Time Lords have got you running scared, haven't they? What is it? Scared they're going to pull you into the war?"

The Rani stopped and turned on her heels. "They already did. They gave me unlimited reign to tamper with Dalek specimens. But Daleks make poor specimens. They're irradiated. Pitiful. _Screeching._ Lumps. Unbearable and useless to my own needs. I don't desire to be locked up and restrained like that." She turned back the way she came and proceeded forward. "The creatures you have seen so far are what I like to call upgrades. I'm _sure_ that a man like you is familiar with the planet Lemerius..."

"Oh, o_f course_! I knew they looked familiar! The nightwolves!"

"You've managed to surprise me, Doctor. You might have actually developed half a braincell since the last time we came face-to-face. Anyway, as you can tell, I have turned the creatures into even better predators. I have taken them and transformed them from small-time hunters of the weak into large, feral predators of the dark. Creatures bent to my will. Monsters born from my desires."

"But what of the human specimens? I know you're taking people. Why else would you set you shop here on Earth? What are you planning with them?"

The Rani was the one to smirk now.

"So hungry..."

Keira turned around upon hearing those words, knowing before she could see it that Cassidy was no longer saying those words.

The green-eyed brunette screamed as she saw what Cassidy now was. A towering, feral impostor had taken residence in what was once a late teenage girl's body. It slowly walked towards Keira, trying to manifest fear within the woman. She backed away through the threshold and closed the door.

The creature lunged for the door, causing Keira to jump back and hit the wall behind her. The impact upon the wall in front of Keira by the creature caused a roundel to the side of the door to crash out of it's position, revealing a panel.

"Emergency biohazard containment..." Keira muttered to herself, reading the panel's label to herself.

She leapt for the panel, pushing the single button. The loud, vicious snarls reduced in volume. Down and down they went until they slowly faded away in a faint, weak whimper. Keira approached the door once again, her entire body quivering in fear.

"Right this way, Doctor. We're almost there." The Rani said.

The Doctor followed, his curious nature constantly making him peek through every open passage that he walked past. What he saw disgusted him. A long history of horrific experimentation, of a whole variety of creatures reduced to nothing but discarded lab rats, greeted him from behind each and every turn. The sheer scale and amount managed to even surprise the sickened Time Lord.

The Rani smirked at the sight of the Doctor's disgust. "Like what you're seeing?"

Before the Doctor could respond however, the Time Lords had arrived at their destination. A colossal, stone-grey chamber. A white cylinder extruded from the centre. As the Rani crossed into the room, the cylinder came to life. The room was suddenly bathed in a blue light as a hologram, 10 feet in height, spurred out from the base cylinder.

"This is what I plan." The Rani proudly proclaimed.

The creature looked relative similar to the Nightstalkers seen before. Tall, grey, monstrous but several key differences were to be seen. The fingers on the creatures left hand were now even more elongated with long, vicious claws. Embedded in it's chest were various metallic and mechanical objects.

"Claws able to rip and shred even Dalekanium or rip a Time Lord's heart straight out. Defenses against all manner of Time War weaponry..."

"... the ultimate Dalek and Time Lord killer." The Doctor finished the Rani's explanation.

"Exactly, Doctor."

"And let me guess, you need human subjects for the base intellect, correct?" The Doctor said.

"My, my and you're right again! After all, what use is a weapon if it can't be used correctly?"

"You're sick."

"This is a matter of survival, Doctor. Who cares if the lesser perish so that the superior can survive?"

The Doctor was visibly taken aback in anger by that comment. "I CARE. And I find it laughable that you consider yourself superior, Rani. _Completely and utterly so_."

"Tch. If I actually cared for your opinions, Doctor, I would be almost hurt." The Rani bluntly responded.

"Though if you only have a hologram to show my of your so-called 'grand scheme', clearly this isn't going to plan!"

The Rani reluctantly stated the truth. "It seems that my conceptions as how to apply my alterations to human genetic coding isn't exactly correct."

The Doctor almost wanted to mock, laugh and derise his rival Time Lady but held it back. That wasn't an act that he did. That was more the way of the woman before him. To do so would be lowering himself to her level.

"However, I have a good feeling about your dear companion, Doctor. I checked up on her back in the clinic. Bloodwork... bio-scans... the works. She's been tampered with and that tampering makes her the perfect baseline." The Rani's mouth formed into a wicked smile once more. She had the upper hand now.

"What have you done to her?!" The Doctor screamed back. Internally, the Time Lord cursed himself. How could he have let his own curiosity blind him to the safety and well-being of Keira?

"Nothing to my knowledge... but give it time." The Rani teased.

From out of the door, Cassidy's body slumped down between Keira's feet. Her body was back to what it once was. Bruises and abrasions littered and stood out against the pale, moon-white skin on her now naked body.

Keira felt sick. She had killed somebody. The back of her mind tried to justify the act. She knew that it was in self-defence but the guilt screamed. It was quick to drown out the justifications.

_She had killed somebody._

The brunette stumbled back once more and slumped down, her face tear-stricken. She planted her head between her knees, entering the foetal position. Keira covered her sight. Her hearing was consumed by the sound of her own crying. She let her guard down. In that vulnerability, a sharp pain was quick to take her right side. The woman started to drift away into unconsciousness.

Keira had let the creatures pounce upon her.

"Ah, good! Right on time!" The Rani praised her underlings with glee, as they brought Keira into the room and proceeded to restrain the woman on a bed in another room on the other side. She was still out cold as the Rani approached the bed. As she entered the small alcove-like room, she turned to a wall and opened up the lone roundel.

Within the hatch beyond, a white light pulsed as within a syringe materialised from out of seemingly nothing. The Rani picked up the syringe, filled with a thick, murky grey liquid.

"I WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN, RANI!" The Doctor shouted out.

"Just try to stop me, Doctor! Now bear witness as my plans come to fruition!" The Rani triumphantly gloated.

Keira opened her eyes as she came to. Seeing the Rani holding a syringe over her, she screamed.


	6. Forest of the Dead

Keira...

The Doctor stood powerless as Keira was wheeled across the room before his very eyes. His mind was frantic. Stakes were high and he was seemingly out of options. There was no way he could override the holographic projector without being attacked. All devices in the room were likely shielded from interference from the sonic screwdriver.

Interference.

The Doctor reached an epiphany.

"I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS, RANI." the Time Lord exclaimed.

Knowing that the Rani wouldn't listen, he closed his eyes. He had seconds to spare. He had to keen his mind. He had to focus. Time seemed to slow as his scrambled around.

The Rani and her creatures screamed in pain as they fell to their knees and crashed into the ground. The Doctor sprang to action, quick to free Keira from her restraints with the Sonic Screwdriver. Pulling the woman up to her feet, the pair fled the room.

"How in the empire did you manage that?" Keira asked, utterly bewildered.

"The Rani has a low level psychic network. That is how she maintains control of the creatures and prevents them on turning on her. For lack of a better term, I 'hacked' into the network and created significant interference." The Doctor responded, his attention trying to focus on finding his way through the labyrinth that was a TARDIS.

Behind the pair, a loud inhuman echo screeched twisted it's way through the corridors. The creatures were reawakening and the Rani was likely with them.

"Can't you take control of those creatures?" Keira asked.

"A tempting idea but I can't. If I return to that network, there's nothing to stop the Rani from doing what I just did to her."

Faster and faster they went until the pair had reached their destination: the control room. As Keira sped for the door out, the Doctor stopped at the console.

"Not yet, Keira. We can't leave the Rani to continue experimenting here."

As Keira walked over to the Doctor, the man was frantically searching the various functions available on the panels before him. It didn't take him long to find the facet that he was looking for. The Doctor placed his hands on the machine, waiting for the Rani to arrive. Heavy thuds of footsteps were soon to become audible as the Time Lady entered the room, flanked by her creatures.

"Hello, Rani..." The Doctor said, his voice now confident as his plan fit into place.

The woman walked in. Where she would usually have a smirk on her face, there now resided a wary look. She _knew_ that the Doctor now had something up his sleeve. She may have viewed the man as stupid but she knew that he wasn't on such a level of brainlessness that he would give up so short of escape. Resisting the temptation to have her creatures attack, she let the Doctor go on.

"I have my hands upon the TARDIS telepathic circuits, ready to send an emergency relay straight to Gallifrey..."

The Rani immediately interrupted the man with a laugh. "And risk the fury of the Time Lords coming down upon your beloved Earth? I can see through your bluff, if you can ever call it such."

"Oh, come on Rani. How much does it take to send this thing into flight? Think for a second and you might not fall so flat for once!"

"Hmph." The Rani grew slightly irate by that remark. "Though what about getting caught up in the crossfire? You'll be sending yourself into the hands of High Council on the platter and for what? To save one little town? How pathetic."

"Pathetic? PATHETIC?" The Doctor's voice rose with rage. "You know what's pathetic? You. The Time Lords. The Daleks. Always dealing with grand plans. Always dealing with the so-called big picture. Always so far up yourselves that you are totally and completely unable to accommodate for the smaller details. The crucial details. The very details which you deny that you nothing more than. This small town? That is _exactly_ what I fight for. This is why I refuse to fight in this war. And if I fall? If I endure endless pain at the hands for the High Council for something you consider minute and pathetic? Then I face that with pride."

The Rani stared at the man in the room. Her eyes squinted slightly as she realised she could no longer call his bluff. She turned away with reluctant defeat. "Fine. You win, Doctor. You want me to go? I'll do so. It's not worth the risk."

With his victory, The Doctor pivoted around towards the exit with disgust on his face. As he and Keira left the time capsule, the familiar sound of dematerialization filled their ears and a feeling of slight unease flew straight though their bodies.

"Type 80 TARDISes... all flashy with their split chameleon circuits..." The Doctor quietly remarked to himself.

As she and the Doctor returned to his TARDIS, Keira didn't feel the excitement that she felt when she arrived anymore. This forest no longer felt like an exciting new world. That feeling had drowned in the stench of death and darkness. Her face was no longer ecstatic. She no longer revelled in the feeling of the wind. She was broken. She was utterly broken down by what had happened here.

"Doctor?" she asked.

The Time Lord turned around with as much of a reassuring smile as he could muster.

"When I was separated from you, I met this girl. She was from around here and the Rani had experimented on her. She became one of those... _monsters_ before my very eyes. I got to knew her and then she changed and... and..." Only tears followed those words as Keira couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

The Doctor looked down to the ground. "I haven't been honest with you, Keira. There's a war going on. A war that's swallowing the cosmos in a tirade of fire and blood. There's going to be a lot more like this and if you want to leave..."

"NO. I don't want to leave. Because I heard what you said back there. You're helping anyone any way that you can and I want to help you do that. I don't want there to be any more Cassidys. I don't want there to be any more of _any_ of this. I joined you as I wanted to see the universe. Now I want to stat as I can't stand and do nothing as it burns."

The Doctor genuinely smiled with those words. "I'm glad to have met you, Keira Nystrom." As he opened the doors into the TARDIS, he turned back. "I think it's time I show you a better side to Earth. I hope that you're listening, old girl!"

As the Doctor walked in, Keira didn't laugh at his joke. She merely took one last sombre look back to the forest behind her as she closed the doors to the box.


End file.
